Google launched a new social network platform called opensocial. OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:
Profile Information (user data)
Friends Information (social graph)
Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)
OpenSocial is a set of APIs that will allow independent developers to build applications that run on any participating network, using the data stored by that network. Partners in OpenSocial fall into two distinct groups: the social networks and the developers building outside apps.
Developers will like opensocial apis since they do not have their own mark up language.